to be delivered to the archdeacon on behalf of the ordinary, but the archdeacon refused to take him, alleging that the prisoner was not a clerk. This raised a serious difficulty; and the question was one of particular importance to the prisoner, as the judges deliberated whether he must not of necessity be hanged. He was, however, remanded to prison, and the subject was much discussed by the judges for several terms; but, luckily for the culprit, the conscientious archdeacon being removed, his successor heard the prisoner read, and consented to receive him; whereupon he was delivered to the ordinary, the judges saying "that in favorem vitæ et libertatis ecclesia, even where a man had once failed to read, and had received sentence of death, they would allow him his benefit of clergy, under the gallows, if he could then read, and was received by the ordinary." Another case is recorded in the 21st year of Edw. IV. (1481), in which a felon read well and audibly in the presence of the whole court; but the ordinary declared "non legit ut clericus for divers considerations." Upon which judgment was given that he should be hanged; "And so," says the reporter, "he was ut audivi." (Year Book, 21 Edw. IV. 21.) But though a felon might claim the benefit of clergy to the last moment of his life, it was an indictable offence to teach him to read for the purpose of saving him. Thus in the 7th Richard II. (1383), the vicar of Round Church in Canterbury was arraigned and tried, "for that by the licence of the jailer there, he had instructed in❘ reading one William Gore, an approver, who at the time of his apprehension was unlearned (ineruditus in lecturâ).” (Dyer's Reports, p. 206.) It may readily be conceived that questions between the temporal courts and the ordinary would arise as the art of reading became more generally diffused; and it was probably on this account that an express provision was made by the legislature in order in some degree to obviate the occurrence of such difficulties. The statute 4 Henry VII. c. 13 (1488), revived the distinction between actual clergymen and such persons as had accidentally acquired a competent skill in reading, by providing that no per

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son once admitted to the benefit of clergy should a second time be allowed the same privilege, unless he produced his orders; and to mark those who had once claimed the privilege, the statute enacted that all persons, not in orders, to whom it was so allowed, should be marked upon the "brawn of the left thumb" in the court, before the judge, before such person was delivered to the ordinary. After the offender was thus burned in the hand, he was formally delivered to the ordinary, to be dealt with according to the ecclesiastical canons, and to make purgation by undergoing the farce of a canonical trial. This second trial took place before the bishop or his deputy: there was a jury of twelve persons, who gave their verdict on oath; witnesses were examined on oath; the prisoner answered on oath; and twelve compurgators swore that they believed him. On this occasion, though the prisoner had been convicted at common law by the clearest evidence, or had even confessed his guilt, he was almost invariably acquitted. The whole proceeding before the ordinary is characterised by Chief Justice Hobart, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, as turning the solemn trial of truth by oath into a ceremonious and formal lie." (Hobart's Reports, p. 291.) To remove this discreditable abuse of the forms of justice, the statute 18 Eliz. c. 7, enacted that in all cases after an offender had been allowed his clergy, he should not be delivered to the ordinary, but be at once discharged by the court, with a provision that he might be detained in prison for any time not exceeding a year, at the discretion of the judge before whom he was tried.

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By various statutes passed in the course of the last century, the court before which an offender was tried and admitted to his clergy were empowered to commute the burning in the hand for transportation, imprisonment, or whipping; and subsequently to the passing of these statutes it is believed that no instance has occurred of a convict being burned in the hand.

The practice of calling upon a convicted person to read in order to prove to the court his title to the benefit of clergy continued until a comparatively late period. A case is mentioned in Kelynge's

whom it was brought about, or to read in the Declaration of Rights any mysteries unknown to those whose penetrating style has engraved in our ordinances and our hearts the words and spirit of that immortal law."

The Declaration and Bill of Rights may be compared with the Petition of Right which was presented by Parliament to Charles I. in 1628, and passed by him into a law. [PETITION OF RIGHT.]

BILL OF SALE, a deed or writing under seal, evidencing the sale of personal property. In general the transfer of possession is the best evidence of change of ownership, but cases frequently occur in which it is necessary or desirable that the change of property should be attested by a formal instrument of transfer; and in all cases in which it is not intended that the sale shall be followed by delivery, such a solemnity is essential to the legal efficacy of the agreement. The occasions to which these instruments are commonly made applicable are sales of fixtures and furniture in a house, of the stock of a shop, of the good-will of a business (which of course is intransferable by delivery), of an office, or the like. But their most important use is in the transfer of property in ships, which being held in shares, cannot, in general, be delivered over on each change of part ownership. It seems to have been from ancient times the practice, as well in this country as in other commercial states, to attest the sale | of ships by a written document; and at the present day a bill of sale is, by the registry acts, rendered necessary to the validity of all transfers of shares in British ships, whether by way of sale or of mortgage.

BILL OF SIGHT is an imperfect entry of goods at the custom-house when the importer is not precisely acquainted with their nature or quantity. A Bill of Sight must be replaced by a perfect entry within three days after the goods are landed. (3 & 4 Wm. IV., c. 52, § 24.)

BILL OF STORE, a licence granted by the collectors and comptrollers of customs to ship stores and provisions free of duty for consumption and use during the voyage. (3 & 4 Vict. c. 52, § 33 and 34.)

BILLON, in coinage, is a composition of precious and base metal, consisting of gold or silver alloyed with copper, in the mixture of which the copper predominates. The word came to us from the French. Some have thought the Latin bulla was its origin, but others have deduced it from vilis. The Spaniards still call billon coin Moneda de Vellon.

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BILLS OF MORTALITY are turns of the deaths which occur within a particular district, specifying the numbers that died of each different disease, and showing, in decennial or shorter periods, the ages at which death took place. The London Bills of Mortality were commenced in 1592, after a great plague. The weekly bills were begun in 1603, after another visitation of still greater severity. In London, a parish is said to be within the Bills of Mortality when the deaths occurring within it are supposed to be carried to account by the company of parish clerks. In 1605 the London Bills of Mortality comprised the ninety-seven parishes within the walls, sixteen parishes without the walls, and six contiguous_out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey. In 1626 Westminster was included; and in 1636 Islington, Lambeth, Stepney, Newington, and Rotherhithe. Other additions were made from time to time. The parishes of Marylebone, St. Pancras, Chelsea, and several others, which have become important parts of the metropolis within a recent period, were never included. At present the parishes supposed to be included in the Bills of Mortality comprise the City of London, the City and Liberties of Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, and thirty-four out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey, the whole containing a population of about 1,350,000.

The manner of procuring returns of the number of deaths and causes of death, as described by Grant, in his 'Observations on the Bills of Mortality,' published in 1662, was as follows::-"When any one dies, then, either by tolling or ringing of a bell, or by bespeaking of a grave of the sexton, the same is known to the searchers corresponding with the said sexton. The searchers hereupon, who are ancient matrons sworn to their office, repair to the

contests respecting the levying of shipmoney, &c., came the distinct assertion and ultimate establishment of the great principle of English liberty. The 13 Car. II. stat. 1, cap. 4, provides for a voluntary present to his majesty, with a proviso, however, that no aids of that nature can be but by authority of parliament. The Bill of Rights, in 1688, repeats what Magna Charta declared in 1215, that levying of money for or to the use of the crown, by pretence of prerogative, without grant of parliament, for longer time or in any other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal.

(Hallam's Constitutional History of England, and Turner's History of England.)

BÉTROTHMENT. We sometimes hear of parties being betrothed to each other, which means that each has pledged his or her troth or truth to the other, to enter at some convenient time, fixed or undetermined, into the state of matrimony. It now has seldom any other meaning than that the parties have engaged themselves privately, sometimes, though it is presumed very rarely, in the presence of one or more friends, who might, if necessity of doing so arose, bear testimony to such an engagement having been entered into. Even the rustic ceremonies which heretofore were in use, to give some kind of formality to such contracts, seem almost to have fallen into entire disuse. In ancient times, however, there were engagements of this kind of a very formal nature, and they were not thought unworthy the notice of the great legislators of antiquity. In the laws of Moses there are certain provisions respecting the state of the virgin who is betrothed. In the Roman law, the "sponsalia," or betrothment, is defined to be a "promise of a future marriage." Accordingly Sponsa signifies a woman promised in marriage, and Sponsus a man who is engaged to marry. Sponsalia could take place after the parties were seven years of age. There was no fixed time after betrothment at which marriage necessarily followed, but it might for various reasons be deferred for several years. The sponsalia might be made without the two parties being present at the ceremony. (Digest, xxiii. tit. i.)

The canonists speak of betrothing and of marrying, describing the former as being sponsalia, or espousals, with the verba de futuro, the latter with the verba de præsenti. In England there is no doubt that formal engagements of this kind were usual down to the time of the Reformation. One class of the documents which have descended in the families who have been careful in the preservation of their ancient evidences, are marriagecontracts, which are generally between parents, and set out with stating that a marriage shall be solemnized between certain parties when they attain to a certain age, or at some distant period, as after six months or a year; and amongst the terms of the contract it is not unusual to find stipulations respecting the apparel of the future bride, and the cost of the entertainment which is to be provided on the occasion. When these contracts were entered into by the parents, there is reason to believe that the younger parties solemnly plighted their troth to each other.

At the present day marriage settlements are generally made when the future husband or wife has property, or when both of them have property. The object of the settlement is to secure provision for the children who may be born of the marriage, and generally to make such disposition of the property of the man and of the woman as may have been agreed on. Such settlements always begin by reciting that a marriage between the parties therein mentioned is intended, which is in effect a contract of marriage.

The late Mr. Francis Douce, who was very learned in all matters relating to the popular customs of our own and other nations, describes the ceremony of betrothment (Illustrations of Shakspeare and of Ancient Manners, vol. i. p. 108), as having consisted in "the interchangement of rings the kiss-the joining of hands; to which is to be added the testimony of witnesses." In France, where the ceremony is known by the name of fiançailles, the presence of the curé, or of a priest commissioned by him, was essential to the completeness of the contract. In England such contracts were brought under the cognizance of the ecclesiastical law. Complaints are made by a writer

bishops, as of Antioch, Ephesus, Carthage, Rome, and the like, we are to understand the presbyters who were the pastors of the Christian churches in those cities. While the Christians were few in each city, one pastor would be sufficient to discharge every pastoral duty among them; but when the number increased, or when the pastor became enfeebled, assistance would be required by him, and thus other presbyters would be introduced into the city and church of the pastor, forming a kind of council around him. Again, to account for the origin of dioceses or rural districts which were under the superintendency of the pastors, it was argued that it was the cities which first received Christianity, and that the people in the country places remained for the most part heathens or pagans (so called from pagus, a country village) after the cities were Christianized; but that nevertheless efforts were constantly being made to introduce Christian truth into the villages around the chief cities, and that, whenever favourable opportunities were presented, the chief pastor of the city encouraged the erection of a church, and appointed some presbyter either to reside constantly in or near to it, or to visit it when his services were required, though still residing in the city, and there assisting the chief pastor in his ministrations. The extent of country which thus formed a diocese of the chief pastor would depend, it is supposed. on the civil distributions of the period; that is, the dioceses of the bishops of Smyrna, or any other ancient city, would be the country of which the inhabitants were accustomed to look to the city for the administration of justice, or in general to regard it as the seat of that temporal authority to which they were immediately subject.

All this is represented as having gone on without any infringement on the rights of the chief pastor, of whoin there was a regular series. Lists of them are preserved in many of the more ancient churches, ascending, on what may be regarded sufficient historical testimony, and with few breaks in the continuity, even into the second and first centuries. Bishops are, however, found in churches

for which this high antiquity cannot be claimed. In these cases they are supposed to be either in countries which did not fully receive Christianity in the very earliest times, or that the bishops or chief pastors delegated a portion of that superior authority which they possessed over the other presbyters to the presbyter settled in one of the churches which was originally subordinate. This is supposed to

have been the origin of the distinction among the chief pastors of bishops and archbishops, there being still a slight reservation of superintendency and authority in the original over the newly created chief pastors.

If this view of the origin of the episcopal character and office be correct, it will follow that originally there was no essential difference between the bishop and the presbyter, and also that the duties which belong to the pastor of a Christian congregation were performed by the bishop. But when the increase of the number of Christians rendered assistants necessary, and this became a permanent institution, then the chief pastor would divest himself of those simpler and easier duties, which occasioned nevertheless a great consumption of time, as a matter at once of choice and of necessity. Having to think and to consult for other congregations beside that which was peculiarly his own, and to attend generally to schemes for the protection or extension of Christianity, he would have little time remaining for catechizing, preaching, baptizing, or other ordinary duties; and especially when it was added that he had to attend councils, and even was called to assist and advise the temporal governors in the civil and ordinary affairs of state. When Christianity, instead of being persecuted, was countenanced and encouraged by the temporal authorities, it was soon perceived that the bishop would be a very important auxiliary to the temporal authorities; while in ages when few besides ecclesiastical persons had any share of learning, or what we call mental cultivation, it is manifest that the high offices of state, for the performance of the duties of which much discernment and much information were required, must necessarily be filled by